Chancellors' star Ebanks in middle of Indiana's mess

Sunday

Feb 24, 2008 at 12:01 AMFeb 24, 2008 at 6:50 AM

Devin Ebanks lives hundreds of miles away from Bloomington, Ind. He doesn’t call the small college town home, nor has he ever donned the red-and-white striped pants that Indiana University has made so famous.

Matt Stout

Devin Ebanks lives hundreds of miles away from Bloomington, Ind. He doesn’t call the small college town home, nor has he ever donned the red-and-white striped pants that Indiana University has made so famous.

But with his future directly tied into that of the Hoosiers, the St. Thomas More senior star and centerpiece of its men’s basketball team’s 2008 recruiting class became as engulfed as anyone in the saga that’s rocked the athletic department the last two weeks. Now, after making the biggest decision of his life to choose to play for Indiana, he’ll face an even bigger one in possibly deciding to leave it.

With Indiana’s move Friday to buy out the contract of coach Kelvin Sampson after it was revealed he committed five major NCAA recruiting violations, Ebanks — who signed a National Letter of Intent to play in Bloomington last November — may have the option of opting out of his commitment, if he so chooses to.

It’s a decision he and his mother, Yvonne Jackson, are waiting to make.

“It’s been an overwhelming week-and-a-half,” Jackson said by phone Saturday. “But right now, we probably won’t decide anything with him until he finishes his basketball season, to actually sit down with him and (St. Thomas More) Coach (Jere) Quinn and just figure out basically what we might want to do.”

Sampson, who was in his second year at Indiana (22-4, 11-2 Big Ten), quickly came under fire last week when an NCAA report detailed several major violations made by the coach and his staff, most of which stemmed from making unauthorized phone calls to recruits. Sampson had been sanctioned after making prohibited phone calls while he was the coach at Oklahoma.

The scandal put the program in a state of limbo before it reached some closure Friday after Sampson agreed to the school’s offer of a $750,000 buyout, and Indiana turned the program over to interim coach Dan Dakich. For Ebanks and the three other 2008 commits to Indiana, though, the process is now just starting.

“When I found out about (the violations), I was very disappointed,” Ebanks said. “I found out on school break and it just showed up on TV and I saw it. But it’s something that’s part of the game right now, I gotta get through it.”

Under extenuating circumstances, schools have been known to release players from their contractual obligations. But Jackson said Ebanks still plans to meet with whomever the school settles on as coach before choosing whether to ask out of the commitment.

“I think the last couple years, the NCAA and the schools have been pretty forgiving in terms of letting guys out of their Letter of Intent,” said Dave Telep, the national recruiting director for Scout.com. “So if there’s a coaching change, as long as the kid understands it’s in his best interest to let the school go through its process (and) let a head coach get hired, and then if you meet with that head coach and you give the perception that you gave the school every chance to try and keep you, if you still want to get out, they’re pretty good about letting guys out.

“But you have to play the game a little,” he said. “The last thing you want to do is start demanding that you be let out of your Letter of Intent. They have the say in it, to let you out or not to let you out. If you’re smart about it, you play the game, you talk to the administration, and at the end of the day, you don’t like it, what can they really do? They’ll let you out.”

The 6-foot-8, 210-pound Ebanks has built himself into one of the nation’s top young basketball players at the Oakdale-based school.

He’s averaging 23 points, 10 rebounds and three assists a game this season, and in St. Thomas More’s regular-season finale Thursday, he scored a career-high 44, grabbed 14 rebounds and shot 17-for-22 from the floor in an individual performance Quinn said may be the best in program history.

“Devin’s a 6-8 kid with a wing span of someone who is 7-foot,” said Quinn, who added that Ebanks is projected to play the small forward position in college. “He shoots the ball well, he’s very athletic and he scores in multiple fashions.”

Recruiting Web site Rivals.com rates him No.13 nationally among all positions in the Class of 2008, as well as the No. 2 small forward, while Scout.com tabbed him as a five-star recruit. Ebanks will also join20 of the country’s other top players in the Jordan Brand Classic on April 19.

He caught the eye of top-flight programs around the country, and eventually drew offers from eight schools, including Texas, Rutgers, Miami (Fla.) and, of course, Indiana. He settled mainly on the Hoosiers because of Sampson.

“He was a huge (factor),” Ebanks said. “I liked him more off the court. He was real down to earth, he knows how to relate to kids at the school. I see his relationship with his players and the relationship we had when I made my official visit, we just bonded together.”

If he does plan to opt out, Ebanks said he won’t fully open up his recruitment again, but will look back into the schools he was considering before, ultimately paring it down to two before making a decision.

Wherever he does end up in the fall, Ebanks said the whole saga hasn’t soured him on the Hoosiers, either.

“To this day, I still don’t regret signing with Indiana,” he said. “I think Indiana is a great program and that it fit me the best. I hope the best for him (Sampson).”